15th Indian Parliament

India is the largest democracy in the world. India has the biggest number of people with franchise rights and the largest number of political parties, which take part in election campaign.

The Government of India also referred as Union Government was established by the constitution of India and is the governing authority of 28 states and seven union territories. It is seated in New Delhi, Delhi. India has a parliamentary system of government based largely on that of the United Kingdom.

The legislature is the Parliament. It is bicameral, consisting of two houses: the directly-elected 545-member Lok Sabha, the lower house, and the 250-member indirectly-elected and appointed Rajya Sabha, the upper house. All the members of the Council of Ministers as well as the Prime Minister are members of Parliament. Every individual minister is in charge of a specific ministry or ministries (or specific other portfolio). He is responsible for any act of failure in all the policies relating to his department. The Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers are jointly accountable to the Lok Sabha.

Politics of India takes place in a framework with multi-party representative democratic republic model. The Prime Minister of India is the head of government, while the President of India is the formal head of state and holds substantial reserve powers, placing him or her in approximately the same position as the British monarch. Executive power is exercised by the government. Federal legislative power is vested in both the government and the two chambers of the Parliament of India. The judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature.

According to its constitution, India is a "sovereign socialist secular democratic republic." India is the largest state by population with a democratically-elected government. India has a federal form of government; however, the central government in India has greater power in relation to its states.

For most of the years since independence, the federal government has been led by the Indian National Congress (INC), Politics in the states have been dominated by several national parties including the INC, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI (M)) and various regional parties like Ė Telugu Desam of Andhra Pradesh, Anna Dravida Munnetra Khazgam of Tamilnadu, Kerala Congress and every state has many other political parties which came into existence.

At the federal level, India is the most populous democracy in the world. The Constitution of India lays down the basic structure of government under which the people are to be governed. Indian politics entered a new era at the beginning of the 1990s. The period of political domination by the Congress (I) branch of the Indian National Congress came to an end with the party's defeat in the 1989 general elections, and India began a period of intense multiparty political competition.

The constitution designates the governance of India under two branches - the executive branch and the judiciary. Real national executive power is centered in the Council of Ministers, led by the Prime Minister of India. The President appoints the Prime Minister, who is designated by legislators of the political party or coalition commanding a parliamentary majority. The President then appoints subordinate ministers on the advice of the Prime Minister.

The President of India is the head of state elected indirectly by an electoral college for a five-year term. The Prime Minister is the head of government and exercises most executive powers. Appointed by the President, the Prime Minister is holds the majority of seats in the lower house of Parliament. The executive branch consists of the President, Vice-President, and the Council of Ministers headed by the Prime Minister.

India consists of twenty-eight states and seven Union Territories. All states, and the two union territories of Pondicherry and the National Capital Territory of Delhi, have elected legislatures and governments patterned. The five Union Territories are under direct rule of President. Elections are held at different levels. The two major election levels are at national level, after which the national government is established and at state level after which the state government is established. Elections are also held for city, town and village councils.

Elections in India are conducted by the Election Commission of India, the authority created under the Constitution. It is a well established convention that once the election process commences; no courts intervene until the results are declared by the election commission. During the elections, vast powers are assigned to the election commission to the extent that it can function as a civil court, if needed. According to the Indian Constitution, elections in India for the Lok Sabha (the lower house) must be held at least every five years under normal circumstances. With the last elections held in 2004, the term of the 14th Lok Sabha expires on 1 June 2009.

The election was conducted by the Election Commission of India, which estimates an electorate of 714 million voters, an increase of 43 million over the 2004 election.

Indian politics and the election process took many major turns in the past few years. The Independent India started the power with Jawaharlal Nehru as the first Prime Minister under the leader of Mahatma Gandhi. The then ruling party Indian Congress was led by Nehru a great leader, freedom fighter impaired the outbreaks of communal violence and political order. Nehru in the years to come turned his daughter Indira to look after him and manage his personal life. Under his leadership Congress won an overwhelming majority in the 1952 elections.

Nehru is the first one to start the planning commission charted the government's investments in industries and agriculture. This took many turns in the years to come and now the planning commission plays major role. Nehru being a passionate of education believed that children and youth are essential for India's progress.

The Prime Minister leads the functioning of the Government. Over the years India had many Prime Ministers and took over many critical decisions. One of the notable Prime Ministers we can quote will be Lalbahadur Sastry. He started his career as a politician by leading the role of Parliamentary Secretary in UP which is his home state. He became the Prime Minister in 1964. He was instrumental in pushing the Green revolution which led India in becoming a food surplus nation. He was soft spoken and mild mannered. He was the only Prime Minister to have died in his office. Sastry lead a life of honest and humility.

One of the most notable leaders of Congress would be Kamraj Nadar. He is widely known as kingmaker of the Indian Politics. He is also known for his honesty, integrity and simplicity. He was closely allied with Nehru. He was also known as Gandhi of the South. Though he is closely related to politics and Indian Congress, he reluctantly became the Chief Minister of Madras Province. He worked hard in improving the schools and education system. He strove hard to remove the illiteracy.

Many other notable Congress and many other party (BJP) leaders took the power during the past few years who took a major role in Indian politics. Morarji Desai, Indira Gandhi, V.P Singh, Charan Singh, Vajpayee, P.V. Narasimha Rao a multi faceted personality. With all these and many other rulers India underwent many changes and politics has become a major topic to be discussed in all walks of life.

The discussion about the leaders and the political leaders in India is never ending. We cannot stop by just mentioning a few leaders and few political parties. There are many other political leaders and political parties who were the Chief Ministers and Governors of different states who ruled and took major decisions, strived hard and brought many reforms and many changes. One of the major notable changes we can talk about is the entry of the film stars in to politics. They launched a whirlwind in the politics. NTR from Andhra Pradesh, Jayalalitha of Tamilnadu and many more grew as politicians after their film career. Dharmendra, Amitbachan, Jayaprada, Chiranjeevi, Vijayasanthi, Satrughan Sinha are some of the notable.

Elections being held once in every 5 years in all parts of the country, both State and Central governments has came across many changes. On the top of all the leaders, rulers, and many more state and central officials, Lok Sabha speaker plays a major role. He holds the key role in the political system. His role is similar to the speakers of the third world countries. The speaker is elected after the first meeting of the general elections.

In India the election were held in March/April 2009. All the major parties and also the new parties which came into existence contested for the loksabha and assembly elections. The government now formed will be in the power for the next 5 years. Voting percentage has seen many ups and downs since the first elections. This being the 14th loksabha elections the percentage of voting is less than the previous term.

General
Election

Year

Male

Female

Total

1st

1952

-

-

61.2

2nd

1957

-

-

62.2

3rd

1962

63.31

46.63

55.42

4th

1967

66.73

55.48

61.33

5th

1971

60.90

49.11

55.29

6th

1977

65.63

54.91

60.49

7th

1980

62.16

51.22

56.92

8th

1984

68.18

58.60

63.56

9th

1989

66.13

57.32

61.95

10th

1991

61.58

51.35

56.93

11th

1996

62.06

53.41

57.94

12th

1998

1998

57.88

61.97

13th

1999

63.97

55.64

59.99

14th

2004

52.65

44.65

48.74

Congress party came to power again and Mr.Manmohan Singh is re-elected as Prime Minister. He is the 17th and current Prime Minister of India. he took various offices during the past few years. he is one the successful and able leaders of the Nations. recently one the major News Papers of India compared him to Jawaharlal Nehru the first prime Minister of Independent India. Manmohan Singh is a renowned economist and internationally respected statesman. Singh's government has worked towards stronger ties with the United States. During Singh's tenure as Prime Minister, relations have improved with Japan and European Union countries, like the United Kingdom, France, and Germany.

59 women make it to 15th Lok Sabha

Though the Indian Parliament is yet to pass the 'Women Reservation Bill' the general elections2009 witnessed a record of 59 women being elected to the 15th Lok Sabha, with a majority - 23 - belonging to the Congress party alone as per the Election Commission's report. In all, 556 women had contested the 2009 general elections. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) became the second topper with 13 women being elected. The All India Trinamool Congress, Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) follow with four women each getting elected to the Lok Sabha. The Janata Dal-United, Shiromani Akali Dal and Nationalist Congress Party have two women MPs each. The Telangana Rashtra Samiti, Rashtriya Lok Dal, Shiv Sena, DMK and Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) have one woman MP each, according to the statement. 355 women contested in 2004 polls of which only 45 won. In 1999 general elections, 284 women contested and 49 were elected.

As an economist and a renowned states man letís welcome Mr.Manmohan Singh as our Prime Minister and looking forward to see many more reforms and changes. Let us hope the 15th Indian Parliament to build a better nation.